is Stotts finaly under pressure for the non existing Defense?

You know who's been a big disappointment in the "improve our defense" department? Derrick Jones. Maybe all of those who thought signing him for $10M was totally random... were right? Olshey would impress me if he could move on from Jones (and, ideally, but that's a pipe dream given his performance, Hood) before the trade deadline.

 

DON'T WORRY FOLKS! CJ McCollum is about to replace Gary Trent in the starting lineup, so our defense is BOUND to improve!

 

I was going to say this....Mo Harkless made more of an impact than Jones has so far....and Mo isn't even playing in Miami now....

 

Jones isn't coming off an achilles injury so I give Hoodie that slack over a healthy player....Hood is very much like Wes Mathews first year with the Mavs.....

 

Just for fun... what if you switch coaches between Stotts and Tom Tibodeu with the same roster. Do the Knicks keep winning and still play defense under Stotts? I know the Blazers will keep winning but can Tom improve our defense?

 

Havinig CJ for the majority of the season with just under half of it to get all of the way back and we'll see about Nurk, it sounds like a week or two away for him too. If Nurk gets back at the beginning of April he'll have played over half of the season and have about 25 games going into the playoffs. CJ if he stays healthy will play 46 out of 72 games being available the last 34.

We are 4 games out of the second seed and 6 games out of the first seed. Zach is not an excuse and how I've just laid it out for you neither are CJ's or Nurk's. Terry better feel the heat and Olshey should too. 9 years of these guys. The team both guys said they wanted minus Zach. They better do a helluva lot or be fired. Otherwise Jody and Vulcan are jokes.

 

My first, and maybe only post of the year....
My main observation about what ails this team is this:
Muscle. Strength. Stoutness. Dawg.
Our guys are waaay too skinny. They lack the strength to defend.
DJJ epitomizes this. Great instincts and athletic ability, but rarely is he "strong enough" to really do anything about it. He is like a feather compared to anybody he goes up against. Same with, well, just about anybody on this team. I think Trent, and Little are the exemptions to my theory. They have some muscle, protective stoutness, if you will, and whadda ya know, they may be our two best defenders. (with respect to RoCo, who also could use a few pounds)
Our team just doesn't have enough muscle. They can shoot 3's all day long as good as anybody. But they simply cannot "bang" with anybody. Anybody.

 

We're also 3 games in front of the 9th seed. Portland has one of the hardest schedules remaining - while both GSW and Dallas (who are right behind Portland) have some of the easiest schedules.

 

I agree. They do need a bruiser. Kanter does it a bit. Nurk will do it a bit.